The improper disposal of hydrocarbons and the leakage of hydrocarbons from underground storage tanks has resulted in contamination of the ground and groundwater beneath every city and town in the developed countries of the world. Many techniques have been developed to remediate soil and groundwater contaminated with hydrocarbons.
“Pump and dispose” is a common method of remediating a soil contaminated with hydrocarbons by use of one or more in-ground pumps. This method uses one or more wells to extract the contaminating hydrocarbons from the ground water. Often times it becomes difficult, especially with multiple pumps operating at a single remediation site to remove only the floating hydrocarbons from the remediation site, and not the underlying ground water. This problem is multiplied where systems employing multiple pumps discharging into a single manifold make it even more difficult to discern which pumps are operating properly, and which pumps are drawing water in combination with the floating fuel or hydrocarbon product out through the well.
In order to maintain a properly working and efficient “product-only” pump system used to extract hydrocarbon or fuel contamination present in a given remediation site, it is necessary to devise a means of detecting when water is present in one or more of the discharge lines of each pump, so proper steps can be taken to remedy the situation for the one or more pumps which are drawing water and product in from the well without having to check each individual pump, thereby minimizing down time of the system.